Colombian immigrants in Panama
July 18, 2006
Panama is probably one of the few Latin American countries that you still can describe as an immigrant country. While a few Panamanians live in the US and even fewer live in Europe, there has been a continuing stream of immigrants to Panama ever since the construction of the original trans-istmian rail tracks began in the mid 1800s.
Nowadays the largest immigrant group are the Colombians. Panama is one of the few places they can visit without a visa and the relative prosperous economy makes it an idea place.
Most of the immigrants are lower or lower middle class immigrants who are often found living in clusters in older buildings like the one on the photo above.
Upper middle class and richer Colombians have also been behind much of the current boom in residential construction in the city, such as this new neighborhood Punta Pacifica above.
While many of the lower class Colombians become prostitutes or strippers, many of them work illegally as hair dressers, bar tenders and sell food on the street. There is now quite a bit of resentment against the Colombians, mainly because of the prostitutes but also because they are blamed for crime and stealing jobs from Panamanians (This argument sound familiar?).
Read more Anecdotal Economics here
Comments:
Most of those Colombian girls are from larger cities like Cali or Medellin and typically they aren't lower class people. They usually come from middle class families and have been raised well. Their only "problem" is their stunning beauty.
They are very beautiful and want to make a living off it. If they can't get into the Colombian modeling industry, they leave the country and turn to other ventures in order to find a 'gringo' for marriage. Working an ordinary job is not their goal in life. Unfortunately part of the Latin culture is to obscure things and having a misstress is quite common. So it works well for some time. Back home they pretend to earn good money in Panama, Costa Rica or elsewhere in the Caribbean as secretary, model or similar. Their is even a song about it from famous Colombian band 'Grupo Niche': La Gallina de los Huevos de Oro.
Posted by: Stephan Schwab at July 20, 2006 01:12 PM
